BOY MEETS WORLD: THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON

The Charge

The Case

Like any grown man too old for shows about high school and teenage romance, I
have a lot of affection for ABC's 1990s TGIF staple Boy Meets World. It
was a show that was always just a little smarter, a little funnier and a little
more honest than it had any right to be. It was also often corny and predictable
and, in its later seasons, way overwrought with manufactured drama. But in the
early-to-middle years, it was a show that was about the fun of being young and
figuring things out for yourself (with the help of some incredibly dedicated and
involved teachers and sitcom-perfect parents, of course). Season Two of Boy
Meets World is one of the better seasons in the show's run, probably because
it exists somewhere in the middle ground of Season One's inconsequential kid
stuff and the romantic angst of later years. There's a good mix of those
elements that make Boy Meets World work.

In Boy Meets World's second season, Cory (Ben Savage, Little
Monsters) and Shawn (Rider Strong, Cabin Fever) have graduated from
jr. high to high school, becoming little fish in a big pond and struggling to
distinguish themselves. Their former teacher, Mr. Feeny (William Daniels,
Blades of Glory), has been promoted to high school principal and now it's
a new teacher -- the long-haired, motorcycle-riding Jonathan Turner (Anthony
Tyler Quinn, Silent Venom) -- who's stuck showing the boys the ropes.
Cory and Topanga (Danielle Fishel, National Lampoon's Dorm Daze 2: College @
Sea) inch that much closer towards being a real couple. A trio of bullies
(including Ethan Suplee of The Fountain and future Rilo Kiley guitarist
Blake Sennett) terrorize Cory and Shawn, requiring the intervention of Cory's
older brother Eric (Will Friedle, The Trojan War) on more than one
occasion.

The episodes that make up Boy Meets World: The Complete Second Season
are: "Back to School" "Pairing Off"
"Notorious" "Me and Mr. Joad" "The
Uninvited" "Who's Afraid of Cory Wolf?" "Wake
Up, Little Cory" "Band on the Run" "Fear Strikes
Out" "Sister Theresa" "Fear Strikes Out" "The Beard" "Turnaround"
"Cyrano" "I Am Not a Crook" "Breaking Up is
Really, Really Hard to Do" "Danger Bay" "On the
Air" "By Hook or By Crook" "Wrong Side of the
Tracks" "Pop Quiz" "The Thrila' in
Phila'" "Career Day" "Home"

There are several big changes in store for Boy Meets World: The Complete
Second Season. For starters, that terrible and interminably long opening
title sequence is gone (it really was terrible, and so, so long), replaced by a
quick graphic and it's on with the show. It's the move to high school that makes
for the show's biggest change, though; not only is it now a show about
navigating new territory (beyond just "the world," which as we already
know the Boy met in the first season), but has evolved into a show that's more
about first dates and first loves than it had been before. Cory and Shawn are
really noticing the opposite sex now, and that becomes the driving dynamic of
Season Two. Making Mr. Feeny the principal of the high school is a cheap and
obvious move to keep the character as a major player, but I don't even mind so
much as I still really like Daniels in the part. Season Two also sees the
addition of new teacher Jonathan Turner, and he's a character I'm much less
interested in. He exists as some kind of middle-man between the boys and Feeny
in that most of their interactions are with him and his interactions are with
Feeny. He's the young, "cool" teacher -- the one that the kids can
relate to (he's teaching them X-Men comics!) but who still has a lot to
learn about life himself. The formula is set early on: Turner gives an
assignment that's a little unusual, Feeny questions his methods and warns him
that it could lead to trouble, Turner says he trusts the kids, things go bad
before fixing themselves and both the kids and Turner learn a lesson. Repeat.
Turner takes on a new role at the end of the second season, setting up a more
interesting arc for Season Three, but he's still never going to be my favorite
character.

Season Two is almost identically comparable to Boy Meets World: The
Complete First Season in terms of its technical specifications. The 23
episodes are spread out over three discs and presented in their original
full-frame broadcast format, looking about as good as a 16-year old sitcom shot
on video can look. In other words, it's far from perfect but also shouldn't
distract fans from enjoying the series the way they remember it. The 2.0 stereo
audio track is fine, too, keeping the dialogue up front and filling in the rest
of the speakers from time to time with canned laughter. There are episode
commentaries on five shows from the grown-up cast that are a lot of fun to
listen to, as well as a video commentary on one show. The only advantage to this
feature is that you can see what the cast looks like now (or, at least in 2004
when this was actually recorded), but let's not pretend like that's not
worthwhile.

Keep in mind that this is just a re-release of the out-of-print set that
Buena Vista put out a few years ago. If you've already got that, you're not
going to find anything new here.

Boy Meets World continues to be a very entertaining show, one which
often exceeds the limitations and expectations of its genre and which has aged
pretty well. A few dated pop culture references aside, the series' mix of absurd
humor and honest coming-of-age themes serve it well. That's what you get for not
talking down to your audience, I guess.